Showing posts with label Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Court. Show all posts

Friday, October 9, 2026

The 2027 Legislature, super early edition. The make them stop edition.

Ugh, just when the first corn fed, cornfederate legislature was safely in the history books, the Management Council met.  Of course, the same dumb ideas that get rejected repeatedly are back up for reconsideration, at least in part.

I hear we want to do the election review again and redo the same bills that just died three weeks ago ... in exchange for 911 funding.

Tara Nethercott.

The corner crossing bill won't be back, which is too bad.

Vote the WFC out and send them back to pre 1964 Alabama where they'll be happy.

May 13, 2026

Woman Sued By House Candidate Reid Rasner Urges Ban On Frivolous Lawsuits

I was aware this legislation had been introduced.  Frankly, Anti SLAPP provisions are really tricky as they're based, basically, on pre judging a litigants intent.

June 10, 2026

Lawmakers revive proposal to remove Wyoming property taxes

The money has to come from somewhere.  Property taxes rise because in no small part new people come in and overpay in the local housing market, and otherwise inflate it.

A better idea would be to have an unrealized sales tax on the sale of real property from other states that

 is used by a person within five years of moving to Wyoming.

August 13, 2026

Lawmakers reject proposal for online court records, streamed hearings

Thank goodness. This idea was outright unworkable.

August 29, 2026

Things are going to be rough from now until the the beginning of the next legislative session as the members of the deposed Freedom Caucus be a general pain.

At Least Five Lawmakers Walk Out Of ‘Absurd’ Joint Committee Meeting

August 30, 2026

The WFC food fight at the legislature continues as Chip Neiman took to Facebook to pout over Senators walking out of the recent pointless joint meeting.

As Speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, I’m entrusted with the responsibility of appointing legislators to standing committees. It’s a charge I didn’t take lightly upon my election to the Speakership.

I’m proud of the members of the House Minerals and Appropriations Committees for finishing the job they took up for the interim pertaining to local government infrastructure funding and the Wyoming Business Council. 

Today, the Senate walked out on Wyoming cities, towns and counties. Conversely, the House committee members remained steadfast in order to deliver the strongest local government funding model seen in decades. This bill will fund local infrastructure and benefit every local jurisdiction and citizen.

The Legislature isn’t a place for turf warfare. 

I worry for the future of the Wyoming Legislature. I encourage those new members coming to Cheyenne, to remember who they serve; not a committee, a chamber or any particular lobbying outfit, they serve the people of Wyoming. See less

Neiman notes that he's Speaker of the House in the legislature, which is true, but he's on his way out and is a lame duck.  The complaint that the "Legislature isn't a place for turf warfare" is really rich given that the WFC acted like the first Vandals in Rome in Cheyenne.  If it's turf warfare, they started it.

We're going to see a lot more of this.  The WFC has been kicked to the curb, but like the the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) in the Battle of Berlin, it's going to see that everything is destroyed that it can destroy before it goes.

One common theme we're now seeing in connection with the WFC losing is this one that appears in the comments to Nieman:

Me too! We are quickly becoming a blue state, just as Charlie Kirk predicted!😢

I've scene that more than once now.

People who make that comment are deluded.  I don't know about this person, but they're likely also carpetbaggers.  Wyoming is a conservative state, but it's not a Turning Point USA Southern Bible Belt state.  This is why traditionally there was no support for restricting abortion much here (which I do feel should be restricted, and indeed illegal) and nobody cared much whether somebody was a homosexual or not, which apparently is also no longer the case.  The local view, and it was expressed in the Democratic and Republican parties, wsa "I don't care what you do as long as you leave me alone".  The WFC didn't want to leave people alone.

As for Charlie Kirk and his predications, I'm increasingly in the "I don't care what  Charlie had to say" camp.  I don't mean to sound like a Kirk basher, but those politicos and their followers that are Kirk acolytes increasingly don't impress me.  Kirk was brought to UW by one of his collegiate admirers who went on to work for Hageman and get canned for following Francoist website, with the same fellow then managing Chuck Gray's campaign.  That's a good enough reason not to vote for Gray, although were are are plenty of other reasons not to do so.  Anyhow, Kirk never reflected a Wyoming point of view.

September 3, 2026

Wyoming lawmakers change course on property tax reform amid signs of waning support

This is a result of the defeat of the WFC, and that Wyomingites did not rise to the occasion to take advantage of a bevy of potential exemptions, at least one of which was in my view likely illegal.

The last year made it increasingly obvious where local funding came from for municipalities and counties, which likely helps explain this.

It also signals the death spiral of a WFC dream.

September 23, 2026

Outspoken Veterinarians Kill Bill To Let Non-Vets Do Livestock Pregnancy Checks

I'll just be blunt about this.  

The same sort of dumb ass movement that backs crap like raw milk as being safe, home delivery by midwives, and "denturists" making dentures without a dentist support stupid ideas like this.

Scientific idiocy has always been part of American culture.  It's why people go to chiropractors and think its like going to the doctor.  Or why people wear brass bracelets, or take ivermectin for Covid (a really bad and dangerous idea).  Or why they think vaccines or dangerous.  Or why they think Robert F. Kennedy makes sense on anything.

It really needs to stop.

October 9, 2026

Wyoming lawmakers take steps to further restrict online gaming


Task force ditches Wyoming-run health insurance plan idea, mulls unorthodox service models

Thursday, October 1, 2026

Tuesday, October 1, 1946. Crime, Punishment, and World War Two.

Sentences were handed down from the major Nuremberg Trial with verdicts having been rendered the previous day.  Twelve convicted were sentenced to death, those being Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann, who was sentenced in absentia and in fact already dead, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner,  Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank,Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Arthur Seyss-Inquart

All told, 19 people were convicted. Three were found innocent, those being Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche.

Mensa was founded.

Kim II Sung University was founded, named in accordance with the despicable strong man trait of naming things after yourself while you are alive. . . kind of like somebody else we could name.

Violence in downtown Denver.


Last edition:

Saturday, September 28, 1946. "I believe the outlawing of the atom bomb is the outlawing of wars... I think the time has come when humanity is intelligent enough to do away with war."

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Court Watch Part VIII. The only restraint edition.

Jefferson County Courthouse, Port Arthur, Texas.

July 14, 2026

In a blistering opinion, a Federal Court judge ruled that President Donald Trump improperly used a $10 billion lawsuit he filed against the IRS to extract personal benefits from the government and prevented the terms of a settlement agreement from taking legal effect.

And more locally:

Laramie County sheriff ordered to appear in court, explain why law firm can’t inspect records

July 23, 2026

Headline in the CST:

Wyoming attorneys oppose Trump’s AG pick

71 Wyoming attorneys signed onto the letter.  Lummis and Barrasso will ignore it.

August 1, 2026

Charges against an Olympic kayaker for vandalizing the reflecting pool have been dropped. 

That was predictable, but what the Justice Department admitted was not.  It admitted the damage was the result of "flawed installation by the contractor" as well as "the rush to complete the project prior to events associated with the America 250 celebration in the weeks surrounding Independence Day 2026."

Every lawyer associated with this should be dismissed and disbarred.  Trump should be impeached.  The victim of these false charges should sue for malicious prosecution.


Closer to home:

Wyoming archaeologists take BLM to court over Native sites, human remains

August 5, 2026

The U.S. Attorney’s Office dismissed all charges against David Hearn, Justin Carreno, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Cameron Thiers for the pool vandalization that never occured.  Donald Trump had previously described these people as “SICK, DERANGED PEOPLE".  He's the sick deranged people, but people who aren't victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome and think he's something other than a rampaging deranged narcissist know that. 

Now, even after the Toddler's tantrums, no charges are pending at all. They never should be.

Lawsuits should, and I predict will, be filed against the government over this.

August 8, 2026

The DC Circuit ordered Trump to halt his illegal ballroom construction but, in a wussy move, stayed its decision for fourteen days in order to allow Trump to appeal, which he, or rather his administration, will.

The Court, in its decision, noted:

Whether or not a massive ballroom should be constructed is for Congress to decide and is not a matter for Executive self-help.

August 11, 2026

It's not that there aren't some really issues here.

Judge dismisses closed primary lawsuit for the second time

But it does provide a good example of why it hurts things for everyone when a gadfly like Skovgaard decides to play lawyer.

August 12, 2026

Court steps in to counter coup attempt.


August 18, 2026

Good news:

Retired Cheyenne attorney renews legal challenge to Secretary Gray’s handoff of voter data feds

Gray violated the law on this and needs to be held fully accountable. Courts looking at this issue have uniformly supported the states that refused to provide the information.

Gray should be made to recover the information he supplied.  This was illegal.  

August 25, 2026

This doesn't decide the ultimate issue:

Supreme Court allows Trump administration to move forward with order imposing restrictions on mail-in voting

But coming when it does, it may very well be the law in a practical sense this election cycle, and impact the election.  It's specifically designed to frustrate Democratic voting.  However, as Amy Howe reports:

A separate ruling by the same judge, in a case filed by a different set of plaintiffs, temporarily prohibits the U.S. Postal Service from implementing one provision of the executive order anywhere in the United States. That ruling remains in effect, at least for now.

The decision is flat out wrong and the Supreme Court will regret it.  The Democrats are increasingly like to win both houses of Congress this Fall and they will begin to work on major Supreme Court reform. Trump can prevent that while he's in office, but he's becoming the political kiss of death for GOP candidates and when a new Democratic President comes in, this order will come off and the Supreme Court will be radically reformed.  Perhaps first up will be age limitations, likely 70 years of old, which will wipe out the conservative majority on the court.

A decision like this one will help bring about that downfall.  So does stuff like this:

Supreme Court allows White House ballroom construction to continue for now

The mail in voting one at least has some think judicial reasoning Staying ballroom construction was the obvious choice here and the Court didn't do it. That probably signals that they'll let this insane project go forward.

August 27, 2026

After Election Loss, Reid Rasner Sues A Sixth Person For Defamation

One of Rasner's previous suits is in the CST today on the pending summary judgment motion.

August 31, 2026

The Supreme Court sealed its fate today in holding that the Plaintiffs in a case challenging the legality of Trump's illegal construction of a giant garden shed on White House Grounds lacked standing.

Bullshit.

Justice Roberts, who dissented in the 5 to 4 decision, noted that the construction was likely illegal.  It is. This was a standing decision.

So construction will commence and may well get completed. The legality will be ruled upon in the future, and then the heaping pile of shit hopefully blown to the ground by a future administration that will rely on this decision. The Supreme Court will go to 13 members, and an age limitation will be put on the justices guaranteeing a liberal majority on the court for a century.

September 10. 2026

Twenty states filed two separate lawsuits against the government alleging the Trump administration illegally weakened the Endangered Species Act.

September 11, 2026

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift an injunction on the USPS prohibiting the implementation of crybaby's attempt for a fall coup by banning mail in voting.

September 15, 2026

The US Supreme Court decided in a 7 to 2 vote to block the Trump USPS rule prohibiting mail in voting.  Alito and Thomas were the two dissenting votes.

Last edition:

Court Watch Part VII. When the last law was down.

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Tuesday, June 11, 1946. The Administrative Procedures Act passed into law.

Not a particularly interesting thing to note, but it is a major legal event.

More interestingly, the Hercules H-4, nicknamed the Spruce Goose due to its plywood construction, was moved from Hughes Airport in what is now Playa Vista to Long Beach, in sections, so that it could be reassembled and tested.

The huge flying boat was already obsolete which was known to all, but Howard Hughes having started it was determined to finish it.

There was crabbiness at the Supreme Court.


Surplus items I'd really love to find today were being sold at Lowry.

The Spruce Goose did make the papers but not until page 20.

Last edition:

Saturday, June 8, 1946. British victory parade.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Monday, June 3, 1946. Irene Morgan and the bus.

Signaling the beginning of a new ear in the Court, the U.S. Supreme Court found segregation of interstate bus passengers to be illegal.

Last edition:

Sunday, June 2, 1946. Latinate elections.

Saturday, April 25, 2026

Court Watch, Part V.

 Expect a major hissy fit.


I think we can confidently assume this project is dead, and that some lesser more useful construction will take place after Trump is out of office.

The judge ruled that the plaintiff was likely to prevail as the administration likely lacks the authority they tried to exercise here.

They should refund the money and Trump should pay for this destruction himself.

April 1, 2026

Trump's executive order on mail voting is set to face legal challenges

April 2, 2026

From the CST:


Basically the judge decided the issues in the two matters weren't sufficiently identical for consolidation.

On other matters:
Lex Anteinternet: Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral...: Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba... : That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's goi...
I posted this yesterday.

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba...: That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of h...

Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara.

That's the birthright citizenship case.

Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of his administration.  His presence at the Court will not impress anyone, let alone the Justices. Trump seems to have lost any sense that he's not that impressive to about 70% of Americans.

His attendance is, frankly, appalling.

Cont (April 1, 2026)

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friend's test?

D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think so. I mean, obviously, they've been granted citizenship by statute ...

GORSUCH: Put aside the statute. Do you think they're birthright citizens?

SAUER: No, I think the clear understanding that everybody agrees in the congressional debates is that the children of tribal Indians are not birthright citizens.

GORSUCH: I understand that's what they said. But your test is the domicile of the parents, and that would be the test you'd have us apply today, right?

SAUER: Yes, yes. So, if a tribal Indian, for example, you know, gives up allegiance to ...

GORSUCH: Are tribal members born today birthright citizens?

SAUER: I think so, on our test, if they're lawfully domiciled here. I'm not s—, I have to think that through, but that's my reaction.

GORSUCH: I'll take the yes. That's alright.

Gee Louise, this administration is really something. 

It turns out that Trump left after Justice Jackson pretty much eviscerated the solicitor, D. John Sauer, who was sent to argue this.  Sauer's career really ought to be over for such a lame argument that was so obviously legal deficient.  He's a former Missouri solicitor and, more important, one of the lawyers who was willing to represent Trump in the past.

April 14, 2026

Trump predictably lost his defamation suit against the Washington Post.

And perhaps something will happen on Gray's ignoring Wyoming's voter confidentiality laws.


April 17, 2026

An attempted end run to fund the garden shed was again blocked by the Federal Court.

April 21, 2026

Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic claiming that an article that claims he has an alcohol problem is defamatory.

April 22, 2026

April 25, 2026
This is sad, but not unexpected, news.

The thing that really gets me here is the remarkable photograph of the three principal female figures in this contest on the abortion side.  There they are, sharing a good laugh, while supporting infanticide.

Abortion is flat out murder, there's no two ways about it.  Something about this made me look up the ages of the women in the photograph.

Burkhart was born in 65 or 67. . . apparently people aren't really sure.  Anthony in 66-68.  Lichtenfels, whom I once knew, probably around 61-62.  So they all grew up in the 60s and 70s when abortion was really gaining ground.  It certainly did that.  A huge number of babies are murdered in the Western world, including the U.S., every day.  The seas of blood on that score outstrips anything the Nazis or Soviet Communists did.  It's part of what's corrupted the United States and given us our current era.

What I wondered about generationally doesn't pan out, however.  Support for abortion is pretty strong across generations in this country, although obviously not so strong that the legislature here doesn't keep trying to legislate against it.

What the legislature needs to do is to work to repeal the health care self determination provision of the state constitution that paranoid far righters got inserted into it several years ago.  If they did, we wouldn't be having this argument now.

Last edition:

Court Watch, Part IV.

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Thursday, April 18, 1946. Riding clubs, Yugoslavia, minor league baseball, teen queens.

The Powell Valley Riding club was formed in Powell Wyoming.

The League of Nations dissolved and transferred its assets to the United Nations.

Jackie Robinson appeared in his first minor league game in the farm teams for Major League Baseball.  He had previously played for the Kansas City Monarchs.  His current team was the Montreal Royals.

The US recognized the government of Tito in Yugoslavia.

The International Court of Justice held its first meeting.

English actress and 1960s Disney teen queen Haley Mills was born.


She managed to transition into adult roles after her Disney era and still acts.  Probably her most famous early movie was The Parent Trap.

Last edition:

Wednesday, April 17, 1946. Syria becomes independent. Protests in Japan.

Wednesday, April 1, 2026

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara

Courthouses of the West: Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Ba...: That's the birthright citizenship case. Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of h...

Donald Trump attends oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara.

That's the birthright citizenship case.

Trump's going to lose this case, which will be another example of the wheels coming off of his administration.  His presence at the Court will not impress anyone, let alone the Justices. Trump seems to have lost any sense that he's not that impressive to about 70% of Americans.

His attendance is, frankly, appalling.

Cont (April 1, 2026)

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: Do you think Native Americans today are birthright citizens under your test and under your friend's test?

D. JOHN SAUER, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I think so. I mean, obviously, they've been granted citizenship by statute ...

GORSUCH: Put aside the statute. Do you think they're birthright citizens?

SAUER: No, I think the clear understanding that everybody agrees in the congressional debates is that the children of tribal Indians are not birthright citizens.

GORSUCH: I understand that's what they said. But your test is the domicile of the parents, and that would be the test you'd have us apply today, right?

SAUER: Yes, yes. So, if a tribal Indian, for example, you know, gives up allegiance to ...

GORSUCH: Are tribal members born today birthright citizens?

SAUER: I think so, on our test, if they're lawfully domiciled here. I'm not s—, I have to think that through, but that's my reaction.

GORSUCH: I'll take the yes. That's alright.

Gee Louise, this administration is really something. 

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Chiles v. Salazar.

A victory for free speech, rational thought, and science.

Only one dissenting vote.

Only the synopsis is provided.





Saturday, February 21, 2026